The Madras High Court has closed a contempt of court petition filed against Coimbatore City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan and Superintendent of Police V. Badrinarayanan for not having permitted members of Valparai Thiravida Thotta Thozhilalar Munnetra Sangam to take out a 105-km-long procession to give a representation to the Collector.
Justice V. Sivagnanam closed the contempt petition after Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) E. Raj Thilak told the judge that the permission was not granted in October because of the Coimbatore car blast and also because the procession had been planned through Anamalai forest range, which was thickly populated with wild animals.
The APP told the court that the farm labourers were aggrieved over non-implementation of a Government Order issued on July 30, 2021 increasing their minimum wages from ₹345 to ₹425.40. Therefore, they decided to take out a procession from Valparai to Coimbatore to draw the attention of the government officials and hand over a representation.
When the police refused to grant permission on September 8, they filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking permission on any future date and obtained an order on October 14 to consider their plea in the light of a circular issued by the Director General of Police on April 9, 2019 with respect to granting permission for processions.
Thereafter, the police rejected permission once again on October 26 citing multiple reasons, which included the tense situation due to Coimbatore car blast, the procession route passing through thick forests, the long distance to be covered and the difficulties that would be faced by other road users due to the procession.
Finding considerable force in the reasons cited for rejection, the judge said, the court had only directed the police to consider the request seeking permission for the procession and therefore, the police officers were free to use their discretion. “I find no wilful disobedience of the court order,” he wrote while closing the contempt plea.
